Thoughts On Gaming Build

C

CHEESE

New member
Hi all.

Im thinking of building the following rig id just like to ask some questions about it.

Mobo = G1 Sniper M5
Case = Corsair 800d
PSU= AX1200i (with braided cable kit)
GFX = EVGA 780 Hydrocopper x 2 (SLI)
Proc = I7 4770k Haswell
Ram = Not decided
Cpu Block = xspc ray..possibly

A friend of mine says i should swap out the sniper for an ASUS rampage and use the i7 3970x, what do people reckon?

Another thing im stumped on is rez's and pumps.. Im thinking of using a FrozenQ Helix rez but iv heard mixed things about them. I was thinking if i didnt do that id use a pump/rez combo mounted in one of the drive bays but i wonder whether id lose the impact you get with a tube style rez. So long story short can anyone recommend some options there, this is my first watercooled pc?

Also what's a decent coolant iv been looking at the mayhems x1 are there any better ones?
 
Sounds ok but for starters you don't need a 1200 power supply a 760 or 860 will be more than enough, for gaming a 4770 is more than powerful enough you don't need to go 2011 as for the ram maybe some Corsair Dom Plats would look really nice.
I can't really give any advice on water cooling having never done it but don't worry there are plenty others here who will help, also have you picked an ssd and hdd yet if not the Samsung 240 pro is very good or even a Corsair Neutron 240 gtx is very good put with a 2TB WD green
Hope this helps
 
My opinion

Motherboard = Good but isn't the sniper M5 a micro atx motherboard?? meaning it'll look weird in a tower case. You're prob better off getting a Z87 GD65 Gaming, Gigabyte z87 OC or a Sniper 5 if you have the money

Case = A bit out dated now, I would maybe look at an NZXT or other corsair case in a similar price range (Switch 810, phantom 630 etc.)

PSU = Crazy crazy overkill, you'll be fine with a 760 even with SLI but if you MUST have that unnecessary headroom then don't get more than an 860

Processor = Fine but you will see little to no difference if you get a 4670k for gaming and save yourself some money in the process

Ram = there's loads of good examples out there. I personally like the new corsair vengeance pro

What your friend says I completely disagree as this is a gaming rig and the 3970x is more suited for workstations. you'll see no gain in gaming by using that and it'll cost you more. silly idea if you ask me

As for water cooling, i can't help you there as I know very little about what's good or not good there
 
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Stick to Haswell, the money to jump to 2011 and a 3970x could get be spent better on GPU(s).

Seems a bit odd to be putting an mATX MB in a full tower though but the Sniper M5 is a good board. Maybe think of putting it all in a mid-tower like the Fractal Arc midi?
 
As said before. Don't stick a micro-ATX board in a full tower. That said, don't buy the 800D. It's only mediocre for watercooling and shit at air cooling.

The motherboards and cases that WillSK has recommended are really good and therefore I'm just going to go ahead and agree with what he said.

In the future we might see games use more than 4 threads (which they don't do now) so in that case it might be benifical to get the i7 over an i5. There's no way to be sure, but as the next-gen consoles will have 8 cores, you might see some improvement from Hyperthreading. If you have the money, just get the i7 imo.

Don't go socket 2011. This was created for workstations and will only cost you a lot more (to purchase as well as electricity bill) and you will see little to no performance increase.

RAM doesn't reaaaally matter. Most chips are from the same factory anyway, though Corsair is really good with their warranty. Just get a nice kit at 1866 or 2133Mhz, CL9, 10 or 11 and preferably at 1.5 Volt. In most cases CL9 kits use 1.65 Volts though, so in that case it might be better to get a 1866MHz kit. Dominator Platinums do look good, but they are a bit overpriced. They are not faster than any other kit with the same specs.

As said plenty of times now, 1200 Watt for a PSU is massive overkill and an AX860 would serve you just fine. Maybe an AX860i if you want Corsair Link, although there is no performance difference between the two.
 
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WillSK said:
My opinion

Motherboard = Good but isn't the sniper M5 a micro atx motherboard?? meaning it'll look weird in a tower case. You're prob better off getting a Z87 GD65 Gaming, Gigabyte z87 OC or a Sniper 5 if you have the money

Case = A bit out dated now, I would maybe look at an NZXT or other corsair case in a similar price range (Switch 810, phantom 630 etc.)

PSU = Crazy crazy overkill, you'll be fine with a 760 even with SLI but if you MUST have that unnecessary headroom then don't get more than an 860

Processor = Fine but you will see little to no difference if you get a 4670k for gaming and save yourself some money in the process

Ram = there's loads of good examples out there. I personally like the new corsair vengeance pro

What your friend says I completely disagree as this is a gaming rig and the 3970x is more suited for workstations. you'll see no gain in gaming by using that and it'll cost you more. silly idea if you ask me

As for water cooling, i can't help you there as I know very little about what's good or not good there
Click to expand...

Thank you for the replies. sorry i meant the ATX version i thought that was just its name, it makes sense that the m denotes micro now you've said it lol.

Cool thanks ill check those cases out, im quite pleased you say i can get away with a lower power supply as thats more money saved.

If the 4670k will do for gaming then ill change to that as im not bothered about OC'ing or anything. I think he suggested it because his dad has that set up and is happy with it.

Thanks to both of you for Ram suggestions what sort of MHZ/GB am i looking for they seem to come in quite a few flavours.

Feronix said:
As said before. Don't stick a micro-ATX case in a full tower. That said, don't buy the 800D. It's only mediocre for watercooling and shit at air cooling.

The motherboards and cases that WillSK has recommended are really good and therefore I'm just going to go ahead and agree with what he said.

In the future we might see games use more than 4 threads (which they don't do now) so in that case it might be benifical to get the i7 over an i5. There's no way to be sure, but as the next-gen consoles will have 8 cores, you might see some improvement from Hyperthreading. If you have the money, just get the i7 imo.

Don't go socket 2011. This was created for workstations and will only cost you a lot more (to purchase as well as electricity bill) and you will see little to no performance increase.

RAM doesn't reaaaally matter. Most chips are from the same factory anyway, though Corsair is really good with their warranty. Just get a nice kit at 1866 or 2133Mhz, CL9, 10 or 11 and preferably at 1.5 Volt. In most cases CL9 kits use 1.65 Volts though, so in that case it might be better to get a 1866MHz kit. Dominator Platinums do look good, but they are a bit overpriced. They are not faster than any other kit with the same specs.

As said plenty of times now, 1200 Watt for a PSU is massive overkill and an AX860 would serve you just fine. Maybe an AX860i if you want Corsair Link, although there is no performance difference between the two.
Click to expand...

Sorry i didnt see your reply before i posted my last response, but you've answered my questions about the ram and i see in another thread a chap said you only need 8 gig for gaming.

I thought i read they had 940W power draw in sli but the cant be the case iv just googled it and the draw is no where near that even in tri sli. So im glad about not having to spend nearly 300 quid on a psu now :)

Can anyone recommend a monitor 27-30 inch hi resolution?
 
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Hi Cheese, you're new so I'll be nice (although you should still read our rules please). We don't allow double posts, we have an edit button to avoid this, you'll find it at the bottom of your last post. You can add to it as much as you like.

Small thing, but a major one.

That said, welcome and I hope you enjoy your stay, I've merged the double post above ;)
 
Are you planning on watercooling? If so what will you be cooling?

8gb is perfectly fine. 850watt PSU is fine. Lastly depends on what monitor you want like a 1440p or a multi monitor setup? Obviously IPS but if you want TN then thats up to you too.
 
I have a FrozenQ Helix 250mm reservoir. They look great but they're on the expensive side once you factor in shipping and customs handling etc. In the UK mine cost me ~£90 including USPS First Class mail, but then I had to pay a surprise £14 for getting it through customs. The build quality is decent, but I have had to seal my end caps with PTFE tape and silicon sealant as I had a very slow leak after installation. I tested it beforehand and it was fine but I dunno, something happened. Either way, I'd personally recommend a tube res over a bay res because the tubing is neater for a couple of reasons. With the bay res you need to allow extra length going to the res so you can pull the res out of the front of the case enough to fill it, and this makes it look untidy. IMO tubing disappearing into the ODD bays looks odd, but that one's just a personal thing.

For the pump, you can't go wrong with a D5 such as the MCP655 Vario which is probably the best pump available, that will allow you to put whatever you want in the loop if you want to add the GPUs in etc and however many radiators. Consider getting a D5 pump top also as then you have your own choice of fittings, they mostly look nicer than the standard housing, and there is more availability for fitting configurations i.e. typically 4 fitting slots on different sides instead of 2 which is standard.

I use Mayhems X1 which I really like. The colour is nice, and the performance is pretty standard. Maybe avoid Mayhems Pastel as quite a few people have had problems with it, especially on this forum lol. Definitely avoid Mayhems Aurora as that is only for show use and it won't last more than a few weeks in the loop without just clogging everything in there. Avoid any coolants containing alcohol (you can tell as most alcohol chemicals end in the suffix '-ol') if you have any acrylic components in the loop because alcohol eats acrylic or something. I learned this the hard way as my alcohol based coolant cracked my old acrylic res and made it leak everywhere. That coolant was DP Ultra which I believe is like Aquatuning's 'own brand' coolant or something.
 
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Sorry Sub i will make sure i only post a single reply from now on. Thank you, this forum has already been an excellent source of knowledge already and im sure i will be posting a lot for help during the build.

I will be cooling the cpu and both 780's on a single loop. There is an option on the sniper 5 to cool the motherboard as well but from what iv read there is no point as it doesn't add that much heat.

Thanks Remmy your post has been extremely helpful. Your build is something i would like to emulate as it looks fantastic.
 
CHEESE said:
I will be cooling the cpu and both 780's on a single loop. There is an option on the sniper 5 to cool the motherboard as well but from what iv read there is no point as it doesn't add that much heat.

Thanks Remmy your post has been extremely helpful. Your build is something i would like to emulate as it looks fantastic.
Click to expand...

There's not a lot of point in watercooling the motherboard from the performance side of things but they can be very nice looking if done well. This usually means using lots of fittings and hard acrylic sections of tubing(such as SLI/CrossFire fittings) between components on the motherboard otherwise there will be a huge mess of loopy tubing around the motherboard.

You're welcome friend, it's my pleasure :) and thank you very much :D
 
Remmy said:
There's not a lot of point in watercooling the motherboard from the performance side of things but they can be very nice looking if done well. This usually means using lots of fittings and hard acrylic sections of tubing(such as SLI/CrossFire fittings) between components on the motherboard otherwise there will be a huge mess of loopy tubing around the motherboard.

You're welcome friend, it's my pleasure :) and thank you very much :D
Click to expand...

Thats an awesome idea and would make a cool feature. The fittings ive been looking at are Bitspower matt black. You're welcome :)

Im still stuck on cases atm the 820 phantom looks cool but the window isnt full length.

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/nzxt...formance-case-with-side-window-usb-30-w-o-psu

I think i could cut it out further with a dremel though.
 
CHEESE said:
Thats an awesome idea and would make a cool feature. The fittings ive been looking at are Bitspower matt black. You're welcome :)

Im still stuck on cases atm the 820 phantom looks cool but the window isnt full length.

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/nzxt...formance-case-with-side-window-usb-30-w-o-psu

I think i could cut it out further with a dremel though.
Click to expand...

a lot of people say the 630 is what the 820 should have been so as said above might be worth checking out. Only difference is that the 630 doesn't come with the NZXT hue lighting pre installed. Also the window isn't as large as it is on the Switch 810 for example
 
Argghh, so many choices lol. Still haven't made my mind up yet, which is just as well in a sense its held me off ordering it all and mullering my bank account lol. Still watching all these review has got me excited im gunna start ordering stuff at the end of the month and put up a build thread.

Can someone tell me where i get the hard acrylic fittings from, iv had a look on scan and overclockers but i can't see them.
 
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CHEESE said:
Can someone tell me where i get the hard acrylic fittings from, iv had a look on scan and overclockers but i can't see them.
Click to expand...

This is the tubing:
http://www.specialtech.co.uk/spshop...lic-Tube-36-Single-Tube--Clear-pid-18339.html

And you need two of these adapters for each piece:
http://www.specialtech.co.uk/spshop...mm-Rigid-Acrylic-Tubing--Black-pid-18539.html

Of course, make sure you get matching diameter tubing and adapters.

I was going to link you to SLI connectors called EK HD SLI fittings, which is what I use, but I've just seen brand new on SpecialTech these long pieces you cut yourself, I can't vouch for them personally but I'm sure they'll be alright from Primochill. Do also bear in mind, this is a fair bit more expensive than the standard tubing solution, it does however look the mutt's nuts.

Edit: I've just read the description on ST, and Primochill says you can also bend them. This sounds weird but I can't wait to see them put to the test and used :)
 
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Remmy said:
This is the tubing:
http://www.specialtech.co.uk/spshop...lic-Tube-36-Single-Tube--Clear-pid-18339.html

And you need two of these adapters for each piece:
http://www.specialtech.co.uk/spshop...mm-Rigid-Acrylic-Tubing--Black-pid-18539.html

Of course, make sure you get matching diameter tubing and adapters.

I was going to link you to SLI connectors called EK HD SLI fittings, which is what I use, but I've just seen brand new on SpecialTech these long pieces you cut yourself, I can't vouch for them personally but I'm sure they'll be alright from Primochill. Do also bear in mind, this is a fair bit more expensive than the standard tubing solution, it does however look the mutt's nuts.

Edit: I've just read the description on ST, and Primochill says you can also bend them. This sounds weird but I can't wait to see them put to the test and used :)
Click to expand...

Thank you. Those tubes are seriously cool, its abit of a shame you cant use bitspower fittings though.

Random question but if you brick your board with a failed bios update, is that covered by gigabyte? On my m15x my business warranty covered bricking but i dont think thats usually the case.
 
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You should check the warranty information in the manual or on their webstite.. Usually you can clear the CMOS and reset the bios(switch) and it'll fix itself.
 
NeverBackDown said:
You should check the warranty information in the manual or on their webstite.. Usually you can clear the CMOS and reset the bios(switch) and it'll fix itself.
Click to expand...

Awesome thanks, iv downloaded the manual from the website even more excited now lol.

Just made a list of water cooling parts I think im going to go with a 900d now, I agree its a boring case design wise but iv read a lot of good things and I like the metal finish.

Anyway heres what I have so far.

XSPC RX360 RAD (for the roof)
Bitspower Matt Black blank fitting x2
Bitspower Matt Black Rotary 45 degree 1/2 ID 3/4 OD x 2
Bitspower Matt Black compression fitting x8
Bitspower Matt Black 90 degree compression fitting x2
EK CoolStream RAD240 (for the front)
XSPC Raystorm CPU Waterblock (for 1150) socket
2m XSPC 1/2 ID 3/4 OD tubing
Bitspower sli crystal link set for 3 slot spacing
Bitspower SLI / CrossFire Multi Link Adapter Matt Black x 2
Primochill rigid tubing (to follow the heatsink on the MOBO.)
Frozen Q helix rez.

and I need some fans but I haven't decided on those yet. This is my first attempt at watercooling and im abit concerned about it tbf lol, but im just gunna take my time and have a go.
 
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